After last weeks opening installment of this two part story things were looking up for season five of NuWho . Truth be told however it'd be very difficult to match the insipid banality of recent weeks . The Eleventh Hour had a seen it all before feel while The Beast Below lacked a certain something and if Victory Of The Daleks was a victory I surely wouldn't want to see a defeat . The Time Of Angels was very much the traditional type of story - when I say traditional I mean somewhat horror inspired - done with Hollywood production values whilst bringing us the return of The Weeping Angels and River Song
The improvement continues . For something perceived by the ignorant mainstream as being " A children's programme " we see something that'd probably be getting a 12 certificate if it was shown in cinemas . Adam Smith is probably the best director on NuWho since Joe Ahearne and the sets are wonderfully cinematic . It's interesting to see that in the future spaceships have forests as a an oxygen supply . It's something that' appeared so often in films like SILENT RUNNING and SUNSHINE that I guarantee you when mankind does reach out to the stars interstellar spaceships will have a forest as an oxygen supply because trees convert carbon dioxide in to oxygen . Science fiction will one day become science fact
Forests are also good locations to have a threat to protagonists wheather they be horribly burned survivors of a previous mission in a Danny Boyle space opera or stone angels in a family tea-time show and director Smith makes good use of the set . Where the episode works less well is with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan but this is probably down to Moffat . Smith seems to have too much dialogue and is constantly giving explanations as to why he's doing something and why something has happened . Smith delivers the dialogue so quickly because there's so much of it you can't help worry that he'll use up all the oxygen in the forest by doing so Moffat never seems to have heard of the old adage of " Show don't tell " which is strange because he did prove this by the final scene of Girl In The Fireplace which explains the whole plot . He does however throw a spanner in the works with internal continuity by having the Doctor explain Amy can't open her eyes for more than second then have Amy open her eyes for several seconds
There is also a scene at the end of the episode involving Smith and Gillan that will go down in legend where the Doctor is offered the chance of giving his companion .... well I think the polite term is " A good seeing to " and to be honest I don't think it works . It's rather similar t one of those scenes/ lines of dialogue that RTD used in his stories just to prove that we're not watching a children's show . There's also a feeling that it's included to an idiosyncratic quality to Amy since there's little to differentiate her with an ordinary generic companion from the classic series . Sad to say neither Moffat or Gillan seem to be able to make her a idiosyncratic companion in the way Rose , Marth or Donna were . Does Moffat have a problem writing companions ? It can be said he's written too much dialogue for the Doctor whilst underwriting the companion
Not to be too negative Time Of Angels / Flesh And Stone are episodes heads and above the others in season five and hopefully the trend will continue in to the Summer when we'll be seeing the return of more foes for the Doctor and Amy
The improvement continues . For something perceived by the ignorant mainstream as being " A children's programme " we see something that'd probably be getting a 12 certificate if it was shown in cinemas . Adam Smith is probably the best director on NuWho since Joe Ahearne and the sets are wonderfully cinematic . It's interesting to see that in the future spaceships have forests as a an oxygen supply . It's something that' appeared so often in films like SILENT RUNNING and SUNSHINE that I guarantee you when mankind does reach out to the stars interstellar spaceships will have a forest as an oxygen supply because trees convert carbon dioxide in to oxygen . Science fiction will one day become science fact
Forests are also good locations to have a threat to protagonists wheather they be horribly burned survivors of a previous mission in a Danny Boyle space opera or stone angels in a family tea-time show and director Smith makes good use of the set . Where the episode works less well is with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan but this is probably down to Moffat . Smith seems to have too much dialogue and is constantly giving explanations as to why he's doing something and why something has happened . Smith delivers the dialogue so quickly because there's so much of it you can't help worry that he'll use up all the oxygen in the forest by doing so Moffat never seems to have heard of the old adage of " Show don't tell " which is strange because he did prove this by the final scene of Girl In The Fireplace which explains the whole plot . He does however throw a spanner in the works with internal continuity by having the Doctor explain Amy can't open her eyes for more than second then have Amy open her eyes for several seconds
There is also a scene at the end of the episode involving Smith and Gillan that will go down in legend where the Doctor is offered the chance of giving his companion .... well I think the polite term is " A good seeing to " and to be honest I don't think it works . It's rather similar t one of those scenes/ lines of dialogue that RTD used in his stories just to prove that we're not watching a children's show . There's also a feeling that it's included to an idiosyncratic quality to Amy since there's little to differentiate her with an ordinary generic companion from the classic series . Sad to say neither Moffat or Gillan seem to be able to make her a idiosyncratic companion in the way Rose , Marth or Donna were . Does Moffat have a problem writing companions ? It can be said he's written too much dialogue for the Doctor whilst underwriting the companion
Not to be too negative Time Of Angels / Flesh And Stone are episodes heads and above the others in season five and hopefully the trend will continue in to the Summer when we'll be seeing the return of more foes for the Doctor and Amy